Energy snares U.S. funding measures

WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- A decision to cut U.S. budget measures on energy and environmental programs would've caused irreparable harm to clean energy efforts, a lawmaker complained.

The Democrat-controlled Senate shot down a bill Wednesday to keep the U.S. Department of Energy, among others, funded through the end of September.

Senate Democrats defeated a bill proposed by House Republicans that would have cut at least $61 billion from the federal budget.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the House bill proposed cuts to the Office of Science by $1.1 billion. This, he said in a speech on the Senate floor, would cause "devastating harm" to the clean-energy future of America.

Other lawmakers complained targeting subsidies for corn-based ethanol would make the United States more reliant on foreign energy.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats "refusal to cut another dime" from the budget meant U.S. consumers would have to pay higher taxes.

Neither of the measures for continued government funding passed Wednesday. A short-term funding resolution expires March 18. The federal government shuts down without an approved funding resolution.